Trespass Sweetly Urged
by Xairathan
Summary: In a timeline where Homura arrives in time to save Kyouko from Oktavia, Kyouko asks for a favor.


_Author's Note: Partially inspired by a set of lines from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, hence the title._

 _"Then pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."_

 _Obviously what I ended up with was nothing near that, but oh well. Kyouhomu._

 _Crossposted from , thanks to Tumblr's crunchymaki and smexmuffinpeddler for beta-reading._

* * *

Kyouko snarls as she jumps to the side, narrowly avoiding a series of spinning wheels aimed at her face. "C'mon, Sayaka," she hisses, brushing warm blood away from her eyes. "Snap out of it. Your friend is here!"

The Mermaid Witch shrieks in response, conjuring more wheels and hurling them at Kyouko's red-diamond barrier. For each link that shatters, another two chains spring into being, but even Kyouko's deep well of magical power is beginning to run dry. She can't even spare a moment to heal the gashes marring her forehead and cheeks.

"Sayaka! Please, stop!" Madoka flinches back as Kyouko's battered shield nearly gives way entirely, and the effort it takes to keep it from crumbling gives Oktavia time enough to lash at Kyouko with her trident. The crimson-clad Magical Girl goes flying across the room, smashing into the surrounding orchestra and crumpling to the ground. Amazingly, her protective wall stands, and Madoka rushes to the far edge of it to call Kyouko's name.

"M' fine!" Kyouko shouts, pushing herself up with trembling arms. "Don't worry about me! Keep trying to reach Saya- oh, crap!"

A cloud of smoke billows up where Oktavia's trident lands, obscuring Kyouko from sight. A harsh wind whips at Madoka's uniform, blowing the red diamonds away one by one. "Kyouko!" cries Madoka, her eyes flickering from the crumbling barrier to Oktavia to the smoke obscuring Kyouko's body.

Then a fiery red appears from within the dark covering, accompanied by the loud chattering of gunfire. Homura advances, automatic rifle braced against her shoulder as she spews a stream of heated lead at the witch. "Madoka?" she asks, not daring to take her eyes off her opponent. "Why are you here?"

"Kyouko said we could try and bring her back-"

"It doesn't work like that!" Homura shouts, the most emotion Madoka's seen from her in the brief time they've known one another. The rifle clicks empty; Homura tosses it aside and draws- of all things- a rocket-propelled grenade launcher from within her shield. Her first shot sends her staggering back from the recoil, but Oktavia shies away from the ensuing blast long enough for Homura to dash forward with superhuman speed and drag Kyouko over to where Madoka stands.

"Stay here," orders Homura. "I'll finish this-"

"You can't." Kyouko reaches up, her hand fastening around Homura's ankle with surprising strength. "Sayaka-"

"Is beyond saving." Homura's grim mask falls back into place as she advances her weapon's chambers.

"You don't know that!"

"I do. And if there was any alternative... I would."

"Homura!"

"You will understand."

Homura leaps away, drawing Oktavia's fire toward her. She sees Kyouko call her spear to her hand out of the corner of her eye, and resolves to end the battle before the other Magical Girl exhausts herself. "Madoka," she whispers, skidding to a stop and taking aim. "I'm..."

A series of five whumps drowns out her apology, splashing heat and fire at Oktavia. The spent launcher is tossed aside and replaced by another, driving the witch back with six more shots. Madoka squeezes her eyes shut with a squeak, but Homura and Kyouko look on, their eyes regenerating over and over- Homura witnessing the work of her hands, and Kyouko feeling the breath torn from her lungs by the explosion and her own shuddering cries.

The witch's barrier drops long before the smoke clears, but Homura doesn't lower her weapon until it does. A trickle of blood runs down the side of her head, and she blinks in surprise. It's been a long while since she last forgot to protect her ears with magic, and she chalks it up to being distracted. Madoka, shielded in part by Kyouko's power, merely will suffer only temporary hearing loss, and from the way Kyouko sobs on the ground, she's not bothering to heal her own damaged ears.

A faint plink comes from the empty room. Homura steps forward, fingers hovering over Sayaka's grief seed when Kyouko snaps, "That's mine." The redhead staggers to her feet, her eyes dark like her soul gem, and shambles forward. "Sayaka's..."

"Do you intend to use it?"

"I won't."

"It's wasted on you, then-" Homura chokes back a gasp as Kyouko closes in on her, hands groping at her collar with a faint but frantic strength. Kyouko lifts her, barely able to take her feet off the ground, and Homura merely grabs her wrist and forces it away. "You can't beat me like this, Kyouko."

"Give Sayaka to me."

Homura glances down at the grief seed nestled in her palm. What would it be but another resource amidst hundreds in her shield? "What will you do?"

Kyouko shrugs. "Take it home. We can't bring her body, but we can bring her, right?"

"We?"

"You can stop time." Kyouko's eye blaze with desperate fire as Homura holds out the grief seed. "We can go back to Kazamino for a night. I'll... she won't have to be alone, and you won't lose any time."

"What makes you think I'll agree to this? I don't see how this benefits me in any way."

"You need me, don't you, Homura? I can feel it, too. Something big is coming. If you do this for me, I'll fight it with you."

"And if I don't?"

"You'll do it. I know you will. You wouldn't risk Madoka. I've seen enough of you to know that."

Homura narrows her eyes, but she knows Kyouko's right. The small girl curled up unconscious on the concrete has become her world, and any threat to it- to her- is inexcusable. Any ally against Walpurgisnacht is valuable by extension, especially if that ally is Kyouko, the single predictable variable of any cycle.

"Fine," Homura agrees, gently scooping up Madoka. "But I'm taking her home first. Then we can go to Kazamino. You realize we'll have to walk if you want me to stop time."

"That's fine. I know the way."

"Very well. I will meet you in front of the bus station in an hour's time. Bring what you need. We will go to Kazamino." Homura pauses, staring blankly at the body of her friend cradled in her arms. "Kyouko. Do you intend to die with her?"

Kyouko clenches her fists, her jaw set in a firm line as she spits, "Just go."

Homura nods and vanishes without another word, taking Madoka with her. Kyouko stares at the place where she stood for several minutes before glancing at the grief seed in her hand. Pushing the last scraps of her power down, Kyouko dispels her outfit and tucks the seed away in her sweatshirt, beginning the slow, painful walk away from the place where Sayaka fell.

* * *

True to her word, Homura arrives an hour later, extending a fresh grief seed to Kyouko. "Take this," she says, her tone leaving no room for objection. "You need it, and I need you to keep up. There's little time."

"Funny that you're saying that," Kyouko sighs, but she accepts Homura's offering. The burning ache in her shoulders fades as soon as her soul gem meets the grief seed, and Homura waves it away when she attempts to hand it back.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah. It's a straight road down from here until we hit Kazamino, where we'll make a left. It's impossible to miss."

"Understood. Let's go."

Homura seizes Kyouko's wrist with surprising ferocity, transforming into her magical girl outfit and snapping her shield to the side in a single practiced motion. A moment later, Kyouko understands why Homura wanted her in peak condition. Homura has every intention of running all the way to Kazamino, using her magical power to keep herself going. If the strain affects her in any way, Homura refuses to show it.

The two girls run in silence for an hour, the tall skyscrapers of Mitakihara slowly shrinking into medium-sized apartment complexes. Homura nearly stops at the border of Kazamino, but Kyouko takes the lead, pulling Homura down the unfamiliar streets. Occasionally Homura sees a change in Kyouko's expression- a twitch of the eye, a downward curving of her mouth, but she remains unperturbed until they reach a small, ruined building on the outskirts of the city. The stained-glass windows are shattered and the steeple has long since caved in on itself, but Homura knows enough to recognize it's a church.

Kyouko approaches a row of three stones by the side of the decrepit building and kneels before them. A thick layer of leaves has covered the ground around them, and Homura watches Kyouko brush it away slowly, almost reverently. When that's done, she pulls Sayaka's grief seed from her pocket and holds it out before her.

"Hi, Dad. Mom. Momo. I'm back. I brought Sayaka again, see?" Kyouko's lopsided grin catches the tears streaming down her cheeks, dripping off her nose and chin to the damp earth below. "She's... with you guys now. Blue hair, blue eyes. School uniform. Can't miss her. Find her and tell her I say hi?" Kyouko paws at the soil, her nails growing dark with dirt and grime, the grief seed shining in her lap. "I- she's gonna stay here, if that's okay with you, 'cause she's family. Take care of her for me. Okay?"

Kyouko's voice breaks into a hundred tiny sobs as she lowers the last of Sayaka's soul into the hole she's made and shovels dirt over it. "Okay, Sayaka?" she whimpers, collapsing atop the small mound.

Homura watches from a distance, trying to shove away what sadness she feels rising within her. She'd thought she'd seen it all, but no- this is a side of Kyouko that Homura's missed entirely. She waits until Kyouko's weeping becomes lost in the gentle whispers of the breeze and the redhead's gathered herself enough to sit back and stare hollowly at the graves. Homura approaches then, the leaves rustling beneath her feet.

"Oh, right. This is Homura," Kyouko says to the graves. "She's a friend, too."

"Your family?" murmurs Homura.

"Yeah. Dad, mom, little sister. Sayaka, too."

"I didn't know. I'd just assumed you'd..." Homura trails off, discomfited.

"It's alright. What about you?"

Homura winces visibly, her eyes drifting out of focus as she tries to remember. Her parents had never been close to her, especially after learning of her heart defect, and after years since their last interaction, Homura could barely recall the details of their faces.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have- forget it," Kyouko says. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"It's fine."

"Yeah..." Kyouko trails off, fiddling with a dead leaf. "Hey, Homura. You don't have to do this, but... I thought we could hold hands. So we'd feel better, you know?"

There's no reply.

A minute passes, and Homura says nothing.

"Ah, whatever. It was a stupid idea, anyway-"

Kyouko stops short when she feels something touch her fingers. When she looks down, she finds Homura's hand laced together with hers. The black-haired girl refuses to meet her surprised gaze, no doubt lost in her own thoughts, but the feeling of warmth is unmistakable. Even the coldest Magical Girl has her days, Kyouko muses, and settles back into a comfortable silence. To her surprise, Homura doesn't let go.

What must be an hour slips through their joined fingers, and only the singing of birds and the occasional leaf blowing past convince Kyouko that Homura hasn't stopped time again. Eventually, Homura rises, disengaging their hands and noting that she surprisingly misses Kyouko's touch. The only other person who made her feel anything remotely close was Madoka- no doubt waking up in Mitakihara to find Homura and Kyouko gone and Sayaka missing.

"I should go," Homura says. "Madoka needs me. Kyouko... if you value your life, stay away from Mitakihara. A witch called Walpurgisnacht is coming. If you return, you might not survive."

"Don't be stupid. I promised I'd back you up if you took me here, and I don't go back on my word. Besides, Madoka is Sayaka's friend, too. She'd want me to help you. If you don't mind another Magical Girl on your territory, that is."

"The witch will arrive in a week's time," Homura says, ignoring Kyouko's joke. "If you wish to come and risk your life, I will be there. If not..." Homura looks back, and for once Kyouko sees her without her facade; sees a thousand facets she can only begin to comprehend and a girl wise and pained beyond her years. "If not, I will not hold it against you. Run, and live."

Homura turns away without waiting for a response and retreats down the hill- without stopping time, Kyouko notes, so she can watch Homura slowly travel out of sight and into the setting sun. "Run and live, or fight and die, huh?" she asks the falling shadows. "I didn't know you had it in you, Akemi Homura."

* * *

As Homura predicted, and as she has for the past twenty timelines, she stands alone. Walpurgisnacht bears down on her from above, giggling between breaths of fire and surrounded by wailing familiars. The last of Homura's sand hangs in the balance of her shield, awaiting a window of weakness, even a second that Homura can drag out into ninety more.

Unfortunately, Walpurgisnacht will not show any weakness to just a single magical girl, even one with the power and skill of Homura. The time-traveler barely manages to dodge a series of buildings aimed at her, the motions eerily similar to the ones she'd performed in Oktavia's domain. The familiars, sensing her fatigue, swoop down in droves, dodging around Homura's frantic spread of gunfire and coming within striking range. Homura grits her teeth, her hand on the rim of her shield, when a red light shoots overhead, clearing out the enemies.

"Kyouko?" Homura gasps in disbelief.

"Sorry I'm late. Forgot I didn't have an instant-travel buddy around."

Homura groans, grabbing a rifle from her shield. "You shouldn't have come."

"Bullshit. You need me."

To Kyouko's surprise, Homura actually smiles- it's faint, barely even noticeable, but it's a change from the flat deadpan Kyouko's grown accustomed to.

"Perhaps I do," Homura finally concedes. "Are you ready Kyouko?"

"You know I am."

Homura nods, reaching out with her shield hand. Kyouko grabs it, her grip steady as Homura rotates the buckler for the last time. Walpurgisnacht freezes, a behemoth of fire and steel, vulnerable for only a few moments more. Homura and Kyouko run at it, Kyouko shouting loudly as she whips her spear around and Homura letting her rifle speak for her.

As the giant witch looms overhead, as the last grains of sand fall through and time resumes again, Homura can only think of one thing- that no matter the outcome, even if she must reset again, this timeline was worth it. Worth the pain, worth the journey with Kyouko- and she would do it again.


End file.
